Brazil insists on TV quotas

Brazil’s recently enacted Pay-TV rules have to be implemented, according to the Fórum Brasil de Televisão 2012, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The rules include programming quotas.

Carla Ponte, head of Discovery Network’s Production and Development Department in Brazil,told local journalists that the company has been producing local material in the country, even before the new law became effective.

The new law requires three-hours- and-a-half of national content during prime time, half of which will have to come from independent producers. Prime time runs all day from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm. Manuel Rangel, director of Ancine, the regulator which monitors quotas, stated that an initial annual demand of a thousand Brazilian production hours was expected.

Ponte also highlighted the need of independent producers to become aware of channels’ current line-ups of so as to submit appealing proposals later. “If a show is on the air, it is because it works”. “The industry needs to see shows as products that have to generate audience, business”. And she added: Discovery is a “window for producers, not only in Brazil but also in other regions”.